Editor's Pick: Out South by the Junior Mance QuintetThis recording makes you wish that Junior Mance was playing in your town—tonight—so you had something truly fun to do. Recorded at Café Loup in New York, Out South captures the 82-year-old pianist doing his thing live: a combination of booty-shakin’ blues, beautiful standards and down-home Mance originals.

The Toronto StarJanuary, 2001 By Geoff Chapman

Mance seems capable of handling all manner of music with equal dexterity, a rare commodity these days, and a careful listen always provides the chance to hear the push-and-pull between the dark undertones and bright-hued highs in his soul.

The Toronto StarJanuary 18, 2001 By Geoff Chapman

...softly weaving through the melody with a worldly wisdom that comes with a splendid half-century career, he infused it with elegant spontaneity without sacrificing cohesiveness - no easy achievement.

Open Air PMAugust 1, 1996 By Lee Lowenfish

As a performer, Junior Mance is much more of a household name in Japan than in his own country. He averages two trips a year to the jazz-loving island nation and is one of the charter members of the biennial "100 GOLDFINGERS" tour.

JOHN S. WILSON,New York Times Jazz Critic:

"Mr. Mance is a very complete pianist…He simply goes finger dancing - probing, galloping, using silence, breaks, trills, and sudden exclamatory sweeps to create performances that are vivid with color and excitement…He draws his listeners into each selection by establishing a distinctive and provocative rhythmic figure…the kind of electrifying performance that is chalked up permanently in the memories of everyone who heard it. A performance that is looked back on in wonder as the years go by."

NAT HENTOFF, Writer and Critic:

"He plays with gathering emotional intensity that involves a good sense of dynamics and above all, a feeling for drama that can heighten the tension-release structure that is at the core of most effective self-expression in any field."

DOWN BEAT MAGAZINE: "Junior Mance is something else…So complete is his psychological command over his instrument that very few of his fellows approach him in this area."

LEONARD G. FEATHER, Writer, Critic, and Editor of The Encyclopedia of Jazz:

"…there is in his work at all times a joy of creation, a sense of spontaneity and pleasure that most jazz enthusiasts still feel must be a part of any meaningful performance."

JOHN NORRIS, Publisher and Editor of CODA MAGAZINE, Canada:

"His early experience helped to shape the uniqueness of his piano sound and gave him the resources from which he built an enviable reputation as one of the better pianists to grow out of the bebop revolution of the forties."